


for blood spilt

by leiaiorgana



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Darth Vader Lives, F/M, Gen, Rey is trained by Anakin, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-07-08 18:10:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15935618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiaiorgana/pseuds/leiaiorgana
Summary: Across the room, Rey saw Leia’s features shift and settle into something unsettling. “I still don’t approve of this plan.”Luke gave Rey a small smile. “It’s the will of the Force.”“It’sillegal.”“And if there’s anyone left on Hosnian Prime who wants to protest, so be it.”Thirty years after Endor, a girl arrives on Ach-To train with a Jedi. Instead, she finds a former Sith.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> so this is an idea I had in the middle of the night and have been working on for like, months.
> 
> the exact backstory will make itself known as the series goes on, but the basic idea is that Mustafar went slightly differently and this changes like... a lot 50 years later.
> 
> TFA went more or less the same, but Kylo's motivations and Snoke's manipulations are slightly different. and we'll pick up where the divergence really makes itself known.

In one corner of the galaxy, at the most pivotal point of history, two old friends are fighting.

They are not enemies. Not yet. No matter what either of them claim, both men want desperately for the other to return home.

The elder of the men will win. He knows he will, because he must. He fights with the strength of a man who has lost everyone he loves. He fights until they’re both exhausted, until they’ve gone through every conceivable battle stance. Until they’ve reached a volcanic river.

He could stand his ground here and leave his opponent to die on the riverbed of a volcano. 

He doesn’t. Instead, he runs. 

Far enough that when he does slice through three limbs, his enemy is weak and pitiful and fallen, but not aflame. 

He should die. Instead, he lives. 

And when he is found, he is rebuilt with metal. 

***

At the other edge of the universe, two decades later, a son carries his father into an escape pod.

The son knows his father will be put on trial and given a harsh sentence. He knows redemption in life is not as easy as redemption in death. 

He doesn’t care. He brings him to safety anyway.

The father is dying. He’s wearing a suit intended only to keep him alive by the barest definition of life. He has lost his helmet and his hand.

But he needs neither to survive. He has his son.

***

In the center of civilization, a boy hears a voice.

A voice that follows him through every day of his life, hidden carefully from the boy’s mother. It whispers terrible things to him, both lies and truths. It twists his mind and the boy melds into the perfect weapon.

His mother is hiding secrets. Her father is a criminal to her, but a hero to the universe. 

The boy’s grandfather is alive. He does not know this. Not yet.

The boy can be better than his family. He will be better than his grandfather. That is the only point both his mother and the voice agrees on.

***

At a planet that is nowhere, the Force cries out in death.

The boy who is now a man slaughters his peers. He is afraid.

He thinks he has no one left. Distantly, he remembers a man who once had nothing as well. His grandfather.

The voice who is now a man hates the boy’s grandfather. He is a weak man, a traitor. 

The boy cannot seek out his grandfather. Not yet.

***

In a galaxy that cannot be found, a father waits for his son to arrive.

His son is ashamed, angry, full of grief. The father welcomes him with open arms.

He lets him stay for too long, listens to his stories as they slowly trickle out. Offers comfort, wisdom, love.

The son cuts himself off from the Force. It makes his father weep.

***

Throughout the universe, there is an awakening.

The voice who is now a leader fears it.

The boy who is now a monster fights it.

The father welcomes it.

The son leaves to find it.


	2. Chapter 2

The air inside the base was suffocating, equal parts stale and artificially cool. Rey almost longed for the dry desert air of Jakku. Temperature control was yet another part of the galaxy she would have to get used to. 

The sterile smell of the medical bay didn’t help. Rey gazed down at Finn’s sleeping form. He looked strangely distant surrounded by transparisteel and wrapped in white bandages. 

A large bang shook Rey from her thoughts. She turned around to find a blur of orange rushing through the doors. As the blur got closer, she realized it was in fact a Resistance pilot running towards her. Beside his ankles was a familiar round droid Rey knew well, which clued her in to who he was.

As soon as he reached her, he shook her hand and introduced himself. “Poe Dameron.”

“I’ve heard of you.” She kneeled to greet BB-8, then shook hands with Poe. “I’m Rey.”

He grinned. “I know.” Poe’s eyes darted down to Finn’s unconscious form and his face fell. He looked back at Rey. “Sorry for the interruption, but I think you need to see this.”

Poe led her outside to the landing pads for the base. A crowd of people surrounded a newly landed starship of a model Rey didn’t recognize. Poe managed to clear a path for the two of them to reach the front of the crowd, where she saw General Leia waiting. Next to her stood Chewbacca, C-3PO, and RD-D2. 

“The General said she felt an old presence in the Force,” Poe said. “Someone she hadn’t encountered in a long time. And then the ship landed.”

Leia didn’t seem concerned or worried. She maintained the same mask of careful formality she often wore around the base. Ever since Starkiller, she dressed for mourning — dark colors and striking silhouettes. Her eyes stayed intently focused on the landing doors of the ship. 

The doors unfurled to reveal a cloaked figure. A man dressed in dark neutrals, with just the wisps of his beard slightly visible. He walked down the ramp and Leia stepped forward to greet him. Rey’s eyes widened. 

She knew. Somehow, she knew this man. There was something familiar in his strides, the way he carried his shoulders that conveyed his dignity and experience to everyone around him. 

Luke Skywalker. 

Chewbacca roared in joy when Luke took off his hood. Artoo beeped and whistled happily.

Leia looked as if she was still deciding whether she believed her eyes. Luke took the initiative, bringing her close and kissing her forehead. Rey saw his lips moving, but he spoke too quietly to be heard. After Luke let Leia go, Chewie wrapped him in a large Wookie hug.

At the display of emotion, many of the rebels dispersed and returned to their stations, whispers audible among the crowd. 

Leia led Luke back towards the Rebel base, Artoo and Threepio following them.

“Oh, Master Luke, it is you!” Threepio said rather loudly. “I knew you would come back! Artoo didn’t agree with me — can you believe him? We were going to send Miss Rey and Chewbacca to go find you.”

At Threepio’s words, Luke turned suddenly and made eye contact with Rey. She felt a shiver run through her — how did Luke instantly know who she was? Was a Jedi simply that powerful?

Leia said something to Luke and he turned back to his group. 

Rey wanted to follow them, but her instincts told her not to. 

Luke should be with Leia first. She needed to be debriefed on what he had done. Besides, he was her brother. Leia deserved to have him with her, after everything she had been through that week.

Rey waited ten years on Jakku. She could wait another couple hours.

***

Waiting patiently in her quarters was much harder than she expected. Especially considering the earlier events that transpired outside the base. 

Luke Skywalker, arriving in his own starship the same day she was due to leave. _Jedi Master_ Luke Skywalker in the same building as her.

Eventually, Rey returned to Finn’s bedside. She wished she could talk to him that second. There was so much that had changed in just one day. He would’ve wanted to meet Luke Skywalker. Even getting to see him land would’ve made Finn so excited.

Finally, Threepio arrived by her with a message. “Miss Rey, I am pleased to inform you that Master Luke and General Leia have requested to meet with you.”

Rey jumped up from her seat. She began following Threepio but, feeling a strange sense of finality, looked down at Finn again.

“We’ll see each other again. I believe that,” she said softly and leaned down to kiss his forehead. “Thank you, my friend.”

Threepio led her to a hallway with a series of doors lining the walls and pressed a series of buttons next to one. The door slid open.

“Thank you, C-3PO.”

Her body hummed with anxiety as she wondered what the two of them might have talked about. Luke could have disappeared for a variety of reasons: to seek out new knowledge to help defeat Kylo Ren, secretly train other Force users, or perhaps he was imprisoned.

He must have dozens of stories. Maybe she was going to get to hear them right now.

The space they chose was rather small, with one table in the center and a couple chairs tucked underneath.

The minute Rey entered the room, she felt the tension between Luke and Leia. The two avoided eye contact and weren’t even sitting together. Leia stood against the wall behind Luke, while he sat with stiff posture at the table. Anger rippled throughout the Force.

She chose the seat directly across from Luke Skywalker. His hair might have been longer and grayer, his face more etched with lines, his eyes duller, than was told in the stories but he was undeniably the powerful Jedi she heard about. 

“So, I hear you wanted to see me.”

Rey wondered if he could feel how fast her heart was beating. “I was going to give this back to you.” She reached to her belt, unhooked her lightsaber, and placed it on the table between them. “And… I wanted to be trained in the ways of the Jedi Order.”

Luke hardly spared a glance to the lightsaber. “Who are you? How did you get here?”

Rey glanced at Leia, who smiled reassuringly, and began speaking. “My name’s Rey. I’m from Jakku. A couple of days ago, I found BB-8, who belonged to a Resistance pilot named Poe Dameron…”

It felt silly explaining the whole story when Leia surely had time to tell him what he missed. Maybe he wanted to hear it in her words. Or perhaps it was a test, to see if she would lie to make herself look better. 

When she finished, Luke’s face was difficult to decipher. He maintained as neutral an expression as he could muster throughout her story, even when his eyes teared up at her description of Han’s death.

“The lightsaber. Tell me more about how you got it.”

She took in a deep breath and focused her eyes on his. “I met a smuggler named Maz Kanata and she told me that lightsaber should be mine. When I faced Kylo Ren, it flew into my hand. Not his. It’s your lightsaber, isn’t it?”

The name Kylo Ren pierced Luke’s resolve more prominently than anything else she had said. Luke paused and picked up the weapon to examine it more closely.

“That lightsaber calls to you,” he admitted. “But it’s not mine. _This_ is my lightsaber.” 

Underneath his cloak, Luke brought out a silver-handled saber and ignited it, green light glowing and hissing in the room. Rey’s breath caught in her throat; the legends always conflicted on whether his lightsaber was blue or green.

“You made that.” The words rushed out of Rey’s mouth before she could put thought into what she was saying. Luke raised an eyebrow. “I mean, that’s what the stories say. A true Jedi must make their own saber.”

“Correct.” Luke unignited his lightsaber and reattached it to his belt. “That was only given to me, just as it was given to you. As for training… yes, I could train you.”

The bubbling inside Rey’s stomach reached a fever pitch. “Thank you so much, Master Luke.”

“I could train you,” Luke repeated. “But I won’t. I swore long ago I would never train another Jedi.”

Of all the wonderful, breathtakingly heroic people Rey had met in the past couple of days, Luke Skywalker might have been the most baffling. 

“Why?” Rey knew she would come off as petulant, insolent even. But something felt off. As if the tides of the Force were shifting to a direction it didn’t like. “If you don’t want to continue the Jedi, then why did you come back? After so long in hiding?”

“I felt an awakening. It led me here.” Luke shifted to look at Leia, whose face remained indiscernible. “And it was time for me to stop running.”

“An awakening? In the Force?” Rey was reminded of her interrogation with Kylo Ren. That strange encounter when he, out of everyone in the galaxy, managed to stir her Force sensitivity after years of it remaining dormant.

He eyed Rey’s saber, which still laid on the table.

“‘A lightsaber is a Jedi’s life,’” he said wistfully, as if he were quoting someone. “I think it’s time we return this one. And get you a real teacher.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’m not the only Jedi left in the galaxy, kid.”

Across the room, Rey saw Leia’s features shift and settle into something unsettling. “I still don’t approve of this plan.”

Luke gave Rey a small smile. “It’s the will of the Force.”

“It’s _illegal_.”

“And if there’s anyone left on Hosnian Prime who wants to protest, so be it.”

Rey felt the need to speak up. “What’s illegal, exactly?”

“You’ll find out when you land.”

“Luke,” Leia said in warning.

Amusement appeared on Luke’s face. “Mystery’s befitting of a Jedi.”

“I told you, I am not letting her walk into this blind!”

“Some explanation would be nice,” Rey added. “Who’s this other Jedi?”

Luke watched her carefully while Leia answered. “The map in BB-8. No one ever really told you what was there, did they? Aside from that it might have led to Luke.”

Rey hesitated. “It’s where the first Jedi Temple is, right?”

“Yes,” she said. “But that’s not why Luke would go there. The map leads to Ach-To, the current residence of Darth — ”

“Anakin Skywalker,” Luke said and turned sharply to look Leia in the eye. “Our father.”

Rey’s thoughts swirled in her head as she recalled what little she knew about Anakin Skywalker — and how many nightmares she heard about Darth Vader. He wasn’t as popular a subject as Luke, maybe because no one quite knew what to make of him. Rey herself was unsure. 

“He’s still alive?”

“Yes. In fact, he’s the reason why I’m here.”

“What happened to him?” Luke and Leia exchanged quick glances. Rey wondered if silent arguments were a twin-thing or a Force-thing.

“What have you heard about him?” Luke asked after a few long moments of silence.

“He used to be a Jedi, but he was tempted into becoming the Sith Darth Vader. When he found you, he defected to the Rebellion and turned back to the Light. Because he loved you. And the two of you helped topple the Empire.” 

“Yes, we did.” Luke smiled as his gaze turned distant. “The full story’s much longer, of course, but that’s for another time. After the war, he was punished with — ”

“Punished?” 

“He mass-murdered people for over two decades,” Leia said. “Yes, he was punished.” 

She gave Luke a pointed look and continued. “Since he aided the Rebel Alliance in ending the war, he was given a plea deal. He was allowed to remain alive, but he had to live in isolation with no weapons and where no one could find him.” As she spoke, Leia’s voice smoothed over into a carefully controlled tone. Rey supposed it might be a holdover from her politician days.

“Ach-To was deemed the most suitable location,” Luke said. “And only a few knew the coordinates. The Senate entrusted that I would check on him every year.”

“And when Luke disappeared, it became a race to find the only map that would lead to both the last Jedi and the last Sith.”

“But he is not a Sith anymore,” Luke emphasized. “That is why Snoke wants him dead.”

“No one else knows the Dark Side like him. There is no one else I trust to keep the Jedi alive.”

“You don’t trust yourself?” Rey asked in bafflement. 

The ghost of shame haunted Luke’s features. “I couldn’t prevent Kylo Ren. If there is to be another generation of Jedi, I am not the one who should lead them.”

“And so,” Leia said. “He’s trusting it with the man who killed them all off two generations ago.”

“He’s one for one on students.”

“I wouldn’t give him credit for Ahsoka.” 

“I don’t understand,” Rey said again, because it was still true.

“I was trained as a last resort,” Luke said. “That’s the only reason I’m famous, kid. If you’re committing to becoming a Jedi, you’ll train under him. He may be the most powerful Jedi to ever live.”

Rey thought of Han, pierced through his heart by his own son. She thought of Finn, still lying unconscious in the medical bay. She thought of herself, just barely winning against an injured Kylo Ren maddened by murder. 

How could she refuse?

“I will go to him,” Rey said. “And I’ll ask him to train me.”

Leia seemed unhappy with her response, but Luke’s eyes glinted with triumph. “When were you planning to leave?”

“In a few hours.”

“I think that can still be arranged.”

***

Outside, Chewie finished up preliminary check-ups on the Falcon. Rey stood a couple feet away, checking and double-checking her pouch to delay the inevitable. 

She saw Leia walking over her to her, still dressed in her dark clothes. 

“Rey,” Leia said. “Luke means well and I trust that he knows what he’s doing, but…”

“But?”

Leia hesitated while mulling over her next words. “If _he_ ever tries to hurt you or he seems suspicious, leave. As soon as you can. And never, ever underestimate him.”

Rey nodded. “He’s a bit of a sore spot for you two, isn’t he?”

Leia distracted herself by fiddling with the folds and buttons on Rey’s jacket. “There’s a reason I never wanted to know those coordinates.”

“I’m not afraid,” Rey said and Leia lifted her eyebrow. “I mean, I _am_ afraid. But this feels right, somehow. Master Luke is right about this.”

Leia held Rey’s hands close to her heart. “I agree, even though I don’t want to. May the Force be with you.” 

Luke and Artoo walked over to them. Artoo beeped a message to Leia, then rolled over to the Falcon and up the ramp.

“May the Force be with you, Rey,” Luke said and for once his eyes seemed warm and comforting. Rey supposed that he might’ve looked more like that when he was younger. Before Kylo Ren.

She smiled. “May the Force be with you. Both of you.”

And with that, Rey boarded the Millennium Falcon and set off to the Unknown Regions of the galaxy.

***

The planet of Ach-To was mostly aquatic. There was only one notable island, populated mostly by Lanais, thalo-sirens, and porgs. And one lonely human. 

As they approached their destination, Rey’s nerves only got worse.

Chewie had almost nothing to say about Anakin Skywalker. Apparently their paths had rarely crossed during the last year of the war. He was never allowed to fly, despite rumors that he was a brilliant pilot. And any memories of Vader wouldn’t be good for her to hear now.

Artoo did his best to reassure her, insisting that Anakin wouldn’t do anything harmful. He told a couple war stories about him that confirmed his old master was, indeed, a brilliant pilot.

Regardless, she felt much more anxious meeting Anakin than his son. Even if she hadn’t actually met Luke before, Rey felt a strange kinship with him through the stories she had heard. She spent several sleepless nights on Jakku imagining how he might have piloted the X-Wing that destroyed the Death Star or courageously outsmarted the Hutt gangsters of Tatooine. In a weird way, she thought meeting him might have been like greeting an old friend.

She was wrong, but at least she used to have something to cling onto. Anakin Skywalker could be any combination of traits. He certainly had the reputation of someone to be feared.

When Rey landed the Falcon, she walked up to the highest cliff she could see and found no one. She gripped the lightsaber in her hand, knowing it wanted to reunite with its owner. 

Luke said that his father wouldn’t be hard to find. Anakin Skywalker shined so brightly in the Force that no one could miss him, even someone with as little training as her. Really, Rey thought she was bound to find him because of how small Ach-To was.

Eventually, she found a clearing with several huts. A man was outside one of them, leaning over while… gardening? That was an unexpected hobby for a former Sith. She walked right to him and Anakin Skywalker straightened up to reach his full height.

He was tall, especially with his prosthetics. Worn leather boots and gloves covered his hands and legs, but Rey could see glints of metal peeking out from their edges. He looked similarly to Luke; silver hair framed his aged face while sharp blue eyes stared her down. He wore simple gray robes designed to withstand the tempestuous weather of the island. 

She resisted the urge to shiver. Every warm and trusting feature on Luke appeared so much harder and colder on his father. Echoes of the Dark Side of the Force followed him. He reminded her of Kylo Ren and her short-lived foray into his mind. He reminded her of the older scavengers on Jakku with faces hardened by decades stuck in the same routine.

Remembering her purpose, Rey reached into her belt, unhooked her lightsaber, and offered it to Anakin. He only continued to stare her down.

“My son has sent you,” he said. She nodded while her heart continued to pound in her chest.

“Leia,” Anakin continued. “Must be _very_ annoyed right now.” 

With that, he entered his hut and left Rey standing outside.

**Author's Note:**

> My Tumblr: leiaiorgana.tumblr.com


End file.
